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[Sizik]

That is, are they a regular language? Or are they context-free, or even more complex? Some types of raws definitely are less complex than others, such as the language raws, which definitely look to be regular.

Disregard the fact that many raw types refer to tokens defined in other files (such as materials and body parts), we'll assume that any appropriate value for those is valid.

[MrWiggles]

I think the raws are pretty regular. They have a pretty decent fiber in their diet.

[Mr S]

I see what you did there.  And I approve.

[GreatWyrmGold]

I think the raws are pretty regular. They have a pretty decent fiber in their diet.

Ugh...

That is, are they a regular language? Or are they context-free, or even more complex? Some types of raws definitely are less complex than others, such as the language raws, which definitely look to be regular.

Disregard the fact that many raw types refer to tokens defined in other files (such as materials and body parts), we'll assume that any appropriate value for those is valid.

Well, enough things in most of the raw files are context-sensitive (e.g, caste-level tags, some reaction tokens) that the raws as a whole aren't regular. However, I have almost no clue as to what regular languages are because the Wikipedia definition seems to require knowledge of several other linguistic concepts.

[Putnam]

I don't think so--positioning is almost entirely arbitrary, most any token can go wherever it wants to be, castes muck it up a bunch, there are too many references to other files, and, like many other programming languages, whitespace don't mean shit.

[expwnent]

I am pleasantly surprised that you are asking what I thought you were asking.

It depends on how you ask. Strictly speaking, the set of raw files that will not be ignored by DF or cause error messages in DF is not regular. For example, if you have an interaction that turns you into a creature or caste that does not exist, then it will cause an error message. The name of a creature or caste (DWARF, ELF, COLOSSUS_BRONZE, etc) can be arbitrarily long, and a DFA cannot remember the entire thing, and thus cannot know for certain whether that creature exists or not. Technically this makes them not even context-free, because the set of all strings of the form {x x} where x is some string is not context-free.

Ignoring such issues, and looking at the raws, I'm surprised to say that I think most of it is regular. There are finitely-many tags, numbers are not an issue, and there are finitely-many "contexts", such as defining a creature, listing something like

Code: [Select]

[TL_COLOR_MODIFIER:IRIS_EYE_AMBER:1:IRIS_EYE_AQUA:1:IRIS_EYE_AQUAMARINE:1:IRIS_EYE_ASH_GRAY:1:IRIS_EYE_AUBURN:1:IRIS_EYE_AZURE:1:IRIS_EYE_BLUE:1:IRIS_EYE_BRASS:1:IRIS_EYE_BRONZE:1:IRIS_EYE_BROWN:1:IRIS_EYE_CERULEAN:1:IRIS_EYE_CHESTNUT:1:IRIS_EYE_CHOCOLATE:1:IRIS_EYE_CINNAMON:1:IRIS_EYE_COPPER:1:IRIS_EYE_DARK_BLUE:1:IRIS_EYE_DARK_BROWN:1:IRIS_EYE_DARK_CHESTNUT:1:IRIS_EYE_DARK_GREEN:1:IRIS_EYE_DARK_OLIVE:1:IRIS_EYE_DARK_TAN:1:IRIS_EYE_ECRU:1:IRIS_EYE_EMERALD:1:IRIS_EYE_FERN_GREEN:1:IRIS_EYE_GRAY:1:IRIS_EYE_GREEN:1:IRIS_EYE_JADE:1:IRIS_EYE_LIGHT_BLUE:1:IRIS_EYE_LIGHT_BROWN:1:IRIS_EYE_MAHOGANY:1:IRIS_EYE_MIDNIGHT_BLUE:1:IRIS_EYE_OCHRE:1:IRIS_EYE_OLIVE:1:IRIS_EYE_PALE_BLUE:1:IRIS_EYE_PALE_BROWN:1:IRIS_EYE_PALE_CHESTNUT:1:IRIS_EYE_PERIWINKLE:1:IRIS_EYE_PINE_GREEN:1:IRIS_EYE_RAW_UMBER:1:IRIS_EYE_RUSSET:1:IRIS_EYE_SEA_GREEN:1:IRIS_EYE_SEPIA:1:IRIS_EYE_SKY_BLUE:1:IRIS_EYE_SLATE_GRAY:1:IRIS_EYE_SPRING_GREEN:1:IRIS_EYE_TAN:1:IRIS_EYE_TAUPE_DARK:1:IRIS_EYE_TAUPE_GRAY:1:IRIS_EYE_TAUPE_MEDIUM:1:IRIS_EYE_TAUPE_PALE:1:IRIS_EYE_TAUPE_SANDY:1:IRIS_EYE_TEAL:1:IRIS_EYE_TURQUOISE:1]
etc.

That being said, if you really want to parse them, you'd probably have a much easier time of it if you do it in a context-free way.